They Still Know My Name
by sunnymadden
Summary: Twenty years after "One For The Road" told through the eyes of Norm Peterson. Find out who is living happily or miserably after all this time and whose stories have ended already.


Norm Peterson looked in the mirror and saw an old man looking back at him. It has been twenty years since that fateful "greatest" day in Cheers' history. It wasn't even so much the years that aged him, it was everything that went down in those years.

Vera had gotten sick with breast cancer in the fall 1998 and died in February of 1999. Her death had rocked Norm to his core. During that time, he had been her nurse. He always joked about how worthless she was but he could never really imagine what would happen if he ever truly did lose her. Of course there were a couple of times when that could have been the case and he always went bananas if she wasn't there by his side. He decided she still was, even if that only meant the right bottom corner of his bathroom mirror. He kept his best picture of her and every morning he stared at her, kissed her, and told her how much he loved her.

Carla Tortelli succomed to the same disease in the summer of 1999. Everybody had suspected that she knew for a while but never told anyone. No surprise to anyone who really knew her. She was a proud woman and didn't want anyone to feel sorry for her. She just called Sam one day and told him she didn't feel good. That was a red flag to everybody because Carla never called in. She died that night. 1999 was not a good year for any of the good people of the bar.

Well, everyone but Cliff. Cliff retired from the U.S postal services and moved to Florida to be closer to his Ma. Norm ribbed Cliff all the time for being a loser but who was he to judge? Cliff was his buddy after all and he did feel great whenever Cliff called him to catch up on things. Norm was happy that Cliff was happy but a part of Norm wished he could have a little of that. With Cliff in Florida and Frasier in Seattle, maybe a new town or city could help him? Nah, he decided, Boston was his home and this is where he'll stay.

With that in mind, he put on his coat and hat, and stepped out into the windy night. The heavy, blustery air hit him in the face and he exhaled the same element. It had begun to snow a little bit and made the city of Boston look even more romantic than usual. His old buddy Coach used to say that Cheers was a romantic bar, but Norm had always believed it was the city itself. While on the silent subject of romanticism, a cozy Italian restaurant caught his eye. It was brightly lit yet in a secretive way that some of the really great ones give off. That was when he notices an old friend in the place.

Sam Malone may have gotten glasses and turned gray, but you could tell it was the same old Sammy. He was flashing a smile at his date. His date was a woman whose name would go down in infamy as long as Cheers was still standing. Diane Chambers would from time to time come back Boston and get together with Sam whenever she was in town. Sam claimed it was never really romantic but who was he kidding? Mr. wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am? And frankly, Diane liked her sex as much as Sam did. They still loved each other and you could tell by the looks on their faces after all these years. If there was ever a great American love story, it was Sam and Diane.

"A bottle of red, a bottle of white," Norm began to sing to himself as he walked away from the window. "I'll meet you anytime you want. In our little Italian restaurant."

With visions of a once again reunited Sam and Diane coupled with the Ballad of Brenda and Eddie stuck in his head, he was onto the bar where everyone knew his name. Where ex-politician Woody Boyd would still be with a cold one at the ready for his arrival. A much more friendly and ditzy waitress, Kelly Boyd, Woody's wife, would entertain him with wonderful stories about her only other two regulars, two divorced, bitter women were named Rebecca Howe and Dr. Lilith Sternin. He would especially look at Rebecca blabbing about her pathetic life and think of how much he missed Carla.


End file.
